Bulldogs Face Princeton in Ivy Tournament

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's
lacrosse team, which earned a share of its league title after
winning six of the last seven games, faces Princeton on Friday at 5
p.m. in the semifinals of the 2010 Ivy League Tournament at
Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y. The Bulldogs (10-3, 4-2
Ivy), seeded No. 3 in the tourney and ranked 15th in the USILA
Division I poll, face the second-seeded Tigers (9-4, 4-2, ranked
9th) in the first game on the Cornell campus. Top seed and seventh
ranked Cornell hosts No. 4 Brown (17th) at 8 p.m. Friday. The
winners play Sunday at noon at Schoellkopf.

TOURNEY COVERAGE

Live coverage of both semifinals is available on
IvyLeagueSports.com and LiveSportsVideo.com for $4.95 for a single
game or $7.95 for both semifinals. Sunday's title game airs live on
ESPNU.

TICKETS

All tickets can be purchased through the Cornell Athletics
Ticket Office in advance or on game day.

IVY FINISH

For the first time in league history, four teams tied for the
Ivy crown. Yale, Brown, Cornell and Princeton all finished with a
4-2 mark. The Bulldogs, Bears and Big Red each won one-goal
decisions on Saturday to force the tie. All four earn
regular-season championship status, but the tie-breaking system was
needed for tournament seeding.

SERIES

Princeton, winners of the last four meetings, owns a 68-20-2
record against Yale. The last Bulldogs' win was 9-8 in 2005 at New
Haven. The only Yale-Princeton post-season meeting was a 17-8
Bulldog victory in the 1990 NCAA Quarterfinals at New Haven. Yale,
after a win last month, is 18-34 against Brown. The Elis are
23-41-1 against Cornell including a loss to the Big Red at Ithaca
this season.

LAST MEETING

Rookie midfielder Jeff Froccaro hit the net with 37 seconds left
to give the Tigers a 7-6 win over the Bulldogs on March 27 at Reese
Stadium. Yale, which had two leads erased, had goals from six
different players and a pair of Brendan
Gibson assists but fell to 0-2 in the Ivy. Max
Rodman's 10-for-16 face-off day was not quite good enough to
get the Blue a win. The Bulldogs had a 39-34 edge in shots and a
31-26 advantage in ground balls. Yale junior goalie Johnathan
Falcone made eight saves but gave up three goals to Jack
McBride, who leads the Ivies in shots. Tyler Fiorito, who leads the
league with 140 saves, finished with 15 at the other end.

YALE COMES BACK ON CRIMSON

Brian
Douglass had three goals, including the tying and winning
tally, as Yale erased a 6-3 deficit on the way to a 9-8 win over
Harvard before 1,113 at Reese Stadium last Saturday. The
Crimson dominated the first half in every category and nearly put
the game away early in the third. Instead, the Bulldogs marched
back with four of the last five goals before holding on with a last
defensive stand. Three seniors had big days for the Blue: Max
Rodman won 10 of 16 face-offs; Yale captain Brendan Gibson pitched
in a goal and two assists and Matt Fuchs
had two goals and four points. Junior Johnathan Falcone made five
saves in the Eli net.

THE TIGERS

Its Saturday comeback bid was greater than Yale's, but
Princeton, which could have taken an outright Ivy title with a
victory, fell 10-9 to Cornell in New Jersey. The Tigers trailed 9-3
entering the fourth quarter and waited five minutes before making a
run that came inches (a shot that hit the pipe) away from evening
the score in the last minute. Princeton's Chad Wiedmaier held the
nation's leading scorer, Cornell's Rob Pannell, to a single assist,
four points below his average. Mike Chanenchuk tallied three times
while Scott MacKenzie notched two in the defeat. Tyler Fiorito made
15 saves for Princeton.

10 WINS

Yale's 10 wins are the most under head coach Andy Shay and the
most since the 1992 team won 12 games. The Blue has won 10 or more
games just seven times in the 95-year history of the program.

Yale is 10th this week's laxnews.com poll and No. 15 in the
latest USILA rankings (see below). Yale's No. 13 ranking last week
was its best in the USILA poll since 1992. Here is the latest USILA
poll.

Rank
Team
Record
Points
Prev. Wk

1
Virginia
14-1
137(4)
1

2
Syracuse
12-1
136(3)
2

3
Maryland
10-3
126
3

4
North
Carolina
11-2
118
4

5
Duke
11-4
112
5

6
Stony
Brook
10-3
102
8

7
Cornell 9-4
92
10

8
Loyola
9-3
84
6

9t
Princeton
9-4
80
7

9t
Drexel
10-4
80
13

11
Villanova
10-4
76
12

12
Denver 11-4
57
16

13
Hofstra 9-4
51
15

14
Georgetown
8-5
50
14

15
Yale
10-3
41
17

16
UMass
8-5
35
9

17
Brown
8-5
23
18

18
Army
11-5
19
nr

19
Notre
Dame
7-6
18
19t

20
Towson
6-7
16
11

Also receiving
votes: Johns Hoopkins, Delaware, Navy

ELI OFFENSE

Six Yale players have hit double digits in goals. Junior A Brian
Douglass has a team-high 32 and ranks 17th in Division I with
2.46 per game. Sophomore A Matt Gibson (26 goals) leads the Elis
with 44 points and is 23rd in the country with 3.38 points per
game. Senior captain Brendan
Gibson has 17-17-34. Sophomore M Gregory Mahony has 18-1-19.
Classmate Matt
Miller (12-5-17) also reached double-digits.

BETWEEN THE PIPES

Junior goalie Johnathan
Falcone has every decision in the Yale net and has a .513 save
percentage. His 8.66 GAA, tops in the Ivy, is 16th in Division I.
He has had double-digit saves in four of the last seven games.
Falcone had a season-high of 15 saves at Dartmouth, while he has
held opponents to single-digits in five of the last six outings.

FACE-OFF

Senior M Max
Rodman, coming off 10 wins in 16 attempts last Saturday, is
14th in the country with a .565 face-off mark. He took a
season-high 33 face-offs against Penn, while his low was the next
day with 11 against Detroit. Rookie Cole
Yeager (.632) got an opportunity to take over against Detroit
and won nine of 13.

GROUND BALLS

Junior LSM Patrick
Coleman leads the Blue with 47 pick-ups. Freshman D Michael
McCormack is second with 44. These two defenders have helped
the Bulldogs hold their last four opponents to a combined 25 goals.

STAT RANKINGS

Yale is 12th in faceoffs (.560), 14th in team defense (8.7),
16th in ground balls (33) and 25th in scoring offense (10.38) among
Division I squads.

DOUGLASS EARNS TWO HONORS

Junior A Brian Douglass was named the May 3 Ivy League co-Player
of the Week and Turfer NEILA Player of the Week after scoring three
times against Harvard. Douglass, who shared the Ivy award with
Brown's Thomas Muldoon, notched the equalizer and the winner in the
last quarter of the 9-8 win over Harvard. It was his second Ivy
award and the first from NEILA this season. The Waccabuc, N.Y.,
native leads Yale with 32 goals, which ranks second in the league.
Douglass had a career-high seven goals against Penn on April 3 and
came back the next day with six against Detroit. He has 47 career
goals in 39 games.

2010 HONORS

Yale sophomore Matt Gibson was named March 8 co-Ivy League
Player of the Week after an 11-point weekend in a pair of
victories. Gibson led the Elis to a 13-12 win over No. 12 UMass on
March 5 with a career-high 5-3-8. He earned NEILA Player of the
Week on April 11 after five goals in the 8-3 win at Dartmouth.
Junior Brian Douglass got the Ivy nod on April 5 after a 13-goal,
14-point weekend set against Penn and Detroit. Freshman Peter
Johnson was named Ivy Rookie of the Week on April 11 after
helping the Blue hold the Big Green to three goals.

IVY TITLES

Yale has won six Ivy League Championships, including the first
one handed out in 1956. The others came in 1969, 1988, 89, 90 and
this spring.

ALL-IVY

Six Yale players were named to the 2010 All-Ivy League Men's
Lacrosse Team, three were second-team selections and three were
named honorable. Sophomore attackman Matt Gibson and midfielders
Nick Tsouris (senior) and sophomore Gregory Mahony garnered
second-team status. Junior goalie Johnathan Falcone and freshman
defensemen Michael McCormack and Peter Johnson were all honorable
mention.

IVY POWER

Five of the seven Ivy League teams were ranked among the USILA
top 20 for most of the season. The four in the league tournament
are the only ones currently ranked.

ON THE BENCHES

Yale head coach Andy Shay is in his seventh season and brings a
44-48 overall record into Saturday's contest. Shay, a two-time
captain at LeMoyne College, was part of two UMass NCAA
Quarterfinals teams as an assistant coach before coming to Yale.

COACH NOTES

Yale assistant Graham Niemi, a former Maryland standout, served
as head coach of Team Finland at the 2009 World
Championships… Andy Shay has coached the Irish National
team… Eli assistant Ryan Polley played basketball and
lacrosse (2nd team All-America) at Merrimack.

CONSISTENCY

Two Yale players have points in every game, Brendan Gibson and
Brian Douglass. Douglass has a goal in 12 of 13 games, Brendan
Gibson has hit the net in nine of 12 and Matt Gibson has tallied in
11 of 13.

CAPTAIN GIBSON

Brendan Gibson, Yale's senior captain, is more than just a
leader and motivator. The offensive-minded attackman has a point in
35 straight games – the fourth longest active streak in
Division I – dating to March 25, 2008. He has 58-36-94 over
that span. His 94 career goals rank fifth at Yale, while his 140
points are seventh. Gibson's 46 assists rank 16th overall at the
school.

Career Goal Scoring

1. Jon Reese
162 1987-1990

2. Adam Puritz
106 1985-1988

3. Tom Zaccagnino
100
1994-1996

4. Mike Scaglione
95
2000-2003

5. Mike Devlin
94
1979-1982

Brendan
Gibson
94
2007-Present

7. Josh McHugh
93
1989-1992

8. Simon Duxbury
92
1991-1994

9. Ned Britt
90
2001-2004

10. Tom Fagan
89 1970-1972

11. Seth Goldberg
86
2002-2005

12. Ted Moran
84
1983-1986

13. Brian Hunt
78
1999-2001

14. Craig Lunde
74
1985-1988

15. Ken Lenskold
70
1982-1985

16. Brian Walter
68
1988-1991

17. Scott Kenworthy
65
2001-2004

Timothy Bradford
65
1964-1966

19. Chris Clark
64
1984-1987

20. Kim Dunn
63
1988-1991

Daniel Brillman
63
2003-2006

22. Shawn O'Rourke
60
1994-1997

BULLDOG BITES

Senior Matt Fuchs made the ThunderBay Team of the Week May 4 on
insidelacrosse.com… Yale leads the Ivies with 33 ground
balls per game… Sophomore Mark
Dobrosky's brother, Dave, is a senior on the Harvard
team… The Blue averages 36.9 shots per game… Yale's
five-game win streak (ended against Bryant) was the longest since
2002 under head coach Mike Waldvogel… Yale has a .777 clear
percentage… Yale has outscored and outshot opponents in all
but the fourth quarter… The first two Bulldogs recruited
from Canada exclusively for lacrosse are newcomers Kirby
Zdrill and Deron
Dempster… Sophomore midfielder Robby
Berner is a member of the Yale squash team and played in the
No. 6 and 7 slots for the No. 2 team in the country.

TESTING

The bus ride to Ithaca might be quieter than it was earlier this
season. Yale players will be in the middle (May 4-11) of final
exams when they head to the tournament on Thursday.

NCAAs

The Elis seek their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1992.
Yale has played in the NCAAs three (1988, 90, 92) different seasons
and are 2-3 overall. The best run came in 1990 when the Blue beat
Princeton in the quarters before falling in OT to Loyola at Rutgers
Stadium in the semis.

2010 NCAAs

Yale hopes to be one of the seven conference tournament
automatic qualifiers for this month's 16-team NCAA Championship
Tournament which culminates with the May 29-31 finals at M&T
Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The selection show airs live on ESPNU at
8:30 pm Sunday.

LAX ADOPTION

Prior to the start of the 2010 season, the Yale men's lacrosse
team, through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation (FOJ), adopted
brothers Sterling (8) and Hunter (11) Bachman. Six years ago
Sterling was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which caused blindness,
seizure disorder and NF1. The Bachman Family and the Bulldogs were
connected through this national organization.

NEILA

The Bulldogs, who have bounced around this poll since the season
began, jumped from fourth to No. 1 in the New England rankings this
week. Here are the latest NEILA Rankings.

NEILA Top Eight:

Yale
10-3

Massachusetts 8-5

Brown
8-5

Harvard
6-6

Bryant
11-5

Fairfield
8-5

Dartmouth
5-8

Quinnipiac
7-6

ROSTER SPREAD

The Yale roster includes players from 17 states and two
provinces. The most are from New York (9), New Jersey (5) and
Pennsylvania (4). None of the 11 members of the class of 2013 hail
from the same state or province. Sophomore Robby Berner (Greenwich)
is the only Yale player from Connecticut.

REESE RENOVATIONS

The renovation of Reese Stadium, scheduled for completion this
summer, will provide a state-of –the-art facility for both
Yale lacrosse and soccer teams. The renovations include increased
stadium seating, an entry plaza, team rooms and a press box. Recent
improvements included a FieldTurf surface and improved lighting.
Reese Stadium, formerly known as the Yale Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium,
is named after former lacrosse players Jason Reese '87 and Jon
Reese '90.

HELMET ROSE

Yale is one of a few schools in the country wearing a Rose
sticker on its helmets in honor of Paul Rose, a lacrosse coach at
four different colleges, who passed away on March 27 after a long
battle with cancer.